Web Accessibility Testing and Tools - Sachin Rajgire and Kinjal Mehta

The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
          -Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

Web accessibility plays an important role in Front end development and Quality assurance.

What Do you mean by digital accessibility?

Digital accessibility allows everyone, including the disabled, full access to digital content. Digital content like websites, mobile apps, or electronic documents like pdf. For people with disabilities, it means equal access to online education, Healthcare, Employment, and  E-commerce. In the age of social media, It even means equal access to friendship and social growth

Accessibility guidelines and techniques are based on four core principles:

1. Perceivable - Perceivable by sight, sound, or touch.
2. Operable - Can be used with either a keyboard or a mouse.
3. Understandable - Simple to grasp.
4. Robust - Compatible with a wide range of browsers, assistive technologies, mobile devices, and older devices/browsers. Follow the rules.

There are two ways of testing Web Accessibility manual or automatic using tools.

• Manual Testing: 

1. Screen reader accessible
2. Color Contrast
3. Keyboard Accessible
   
   
   

• Automatic Testing Using rolls: Tools are used to run on websites and they catch the bugs which can be resolved.

Examples: Decorative Vs Informative Image

Decorative Image: We deliberately don't want the screen reader to read it. Put alt-Tag Decorative
alt=’’
Example URL:

Informative:  Its A image that is conveying some information to its users
alt= “this is the logo of the company”
Example URL: 

Here are some free Web-Based Website Accessibility Evaluation Tools

1. Intent-Based – Accessibility Checker
   Developed in 2020 by Intent Based, Accessibility Checker is a free web-based audit tool that scans your website for major legislations around the world.
2.  AChecker – Accessibility Checker
   The Inclusive Design Research Centre (previously known as the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre) of the University of Toronto created Accessibility Checker in 2009 as an open-source accessibility evaluation tool.
3. Cynthia Says
   The Cynthia Says site is an accessibility evaluation tool for Web content. Its purpose is to find flaws in your content that are relevant to Section 508 and/or WCAG compliance.
4. FAE – Functional Accessibility Evaluator
   The FAE  uses the ITAA Web Accessibility Standards, which are based on the WCAG 1.0 and Section 508 criteria, to assess a web page's accessibility.
5. MAGENTA – Multi-Analysis of Guidelines by an ENhanced Tool for Accessibility
   The Human Interface in Information Systems (HIIS) Laboratory of the Human-Computer Interaction Group developed MAGENTA, a web-based accessibility tool.
6. TAW – Test de Accesibilidad Web
   For mobile accessibility, TAW uses WCAG 1.0, 2.0, and its own set of algorithms. TAW, which was created by the CTIC Centro Tecnólogico, explicitly highlights the accessibility problems it finds by offering an annotated version of the website as well as suggestions on how to fix them.
7. WAVE – Web Accessibility Versatile Evaluator
   WAVE is a WebAIM tool that is available online as well as as a Firefox add-on. It notifies users of accessibility problems by annotating a copy of the assessed page and offering suggestions for how to correct them.
8. Sa11y
   Sa11y is a free application created by Ryerson University that visually marks potential mistakes on a webpage and suggests ways to remedy them.

Summary
This article should have provided you with a high-level overview of accessibility, as well as explanations of why it's important and how to incorporate it into your workflow. You should now be eager to learn about the implementation details that can make websites accessible, and we'll start with why HTML is a strong foundation for accessibility in the next section.